Truck driver sentenced to a year in prison for crash that killed New Hampshire trooper
A Connecticut truck driver will spend at least 12 months behind bars after pleading guilty Friday to charges related to a highway crash that killed a New Hampshire state trooper.
Jay Medeiros, of Ashford, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in the crash that killed Staff Sgt. Jesse Sherrill in Fall 2021.
Rockingham County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff acknowledged that Medeiros took responsibility for the crash as part of a plea deal, which he said would “provide closure for the victims.” But he also said this was a difficult case because of the “profound loss” suffered. by Sherill’s family and his fellow state troopers, several of whom were present in court in uniform.
“No sentence I impose will ever bring him back or solve the issues that arise in this case,” he said.
Authorities say Medeiros was driving a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Portsmouth that struck Sherrill’s cruiser while the trooper was working at the site of an overnight paving project.
He must serve 12 months for the negligent homicide charge. A sentence of 3 1/2 to 7 years on the reckless endangerment charge will be suspended for 20 years after he is released. If Medeiros violates the terms of his sentence, that sentence will be served consecutively to the twelve-month prison sentence.
Ruoff acknowledged that Medeiros may have received a much harsher sentence had he been convicted at trial, although he noted that such charges can be difficult to prove in court. Ruoff referenced the case of a commercial truck driver who was found not guilty of causing the deaths of seven motorcyclists in a head-on collision in northern New Hampshire in 2019.
“Nobody likes plea deals,” he said, but “what hurts even more is that after a trial, from the state’s perspective, the suspect was outright acquitted.”
“Don’t take my word for it,” he said. “All you have to do is go north and ask the families of those seven victims of that negligent homicide trial that took place there a few years ago. That young man walked out of court.”
Medeiros filed a notice of intent to change his plea from not guilty to guilty in November.
Sherrill, a father of two who spent time coaching baseball, had worked in law enforcement in New Hampshire for 20 years. Sherrill, 44, was the 10th state police trooper killed in the line of duty and the first since Trooper Leslie Lord and Trooper Scott Phillips were killed in 1997.
“No punishment will punish Staff Sgt. Jesse Sherrill, who embodied what it is to be a hero. He dedicated his life to being a father, husband, son, brother, friend, coach, mentor and a New Hampshire State Trooper, Col. Mark B. Hall of the New Hampshire State Police said in a statement. “His death was a stark reminder of the dangers our State Troopers face every day when they put on their uniforms. This preventable and horrific tragedy did not have to happen.”